{"id":111451,"date":"2024-05-09T12:29:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T16:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=111451"},"modified":"2024-05-09T12:33:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T16:33:32","slug":"gin-n-tonic-martini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=111451","title":{"rendered":"Gin &#8216;n&#8217; Tonic Martini"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Are you kidding?&nbsp; A Gin \u2018n\u2019Tonic Martini?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To explore new worlds,<br \/>To seek out new life and civilizations,<br \/>To go where no man has gone before.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, I am not on a five year mission.&nbsp; I was just looking to finish off a bottle of Tanqueray Rangpur Gin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, and this must be understood if you go further in this brief essay, I am a committed Martini traditionalist.&nbsp; This most classic of cocktails is made with gin and, at your discretion, varying smidgens of dry vermouth.&nbsp; The choice of swapping vodka for gin, even with the endorsement of James Bond, is the path to perdition.&nbsp; It&#8217;s the slippery slope that brings us to Chocolatini, Espressotini, Fruit-Bombatini and other offensive departures from the genuine article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This, if you didn\u2019t know, is to give folks the opportunity to sip a friendly, less lethal, more appealing (?) concoction from an \u201cup\u201d glass (aka, martini glass) to add, perhaps, a veneer of sophistication to their cocktail choice. Sorry, it\u2019s simply weak camouflage for a drink with training wheels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third, in my years&nbsp;past, I&nbsp; consumed countless gin \u2018n\u2019 tonics, particularly during the warm weather months.&nbsp; PRO TIP: the most important ingredient in a G&amp;T is the tonic.&nbsp; The next most important ingredient is a plump fresh lime.&nbsp; Gin is the side show, which is why you don\u2019t have to invest in a fancy shmancy gin to make a great drink \u2013 with one exception, which we will return to anon. And then there is this piece of good news:&nbsp; a restaurant or bar will never (NEVER, EVER) make a G&amp;T as good as the one you make in your home!&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because there is no tonic from a soda gun that can come close to the fresh taste and effervescence&nbsp;of a newly opened bottle of top quality tonic that you get at your Stop &amp; Shop!! Buy the small bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recipe for a gin \u2018n\u2019 tonic is simple.&nbsp; Put ice into a highball glass, add a jigger of gin (1\u00bdoz), top with tonic, squeeze a wedge of lime into the glass, rim the glass with the lime &amp; drop the lime into the glass.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>But,&nbsp;<\/em>with no more effort you can substitute a \u201cnothing\u201d gin for Tanqueray Rangpur gin.&nbsp; This fancy shmancy gin is actually worth it.&nbsp; It\u2019s a lime infused gin that makes so much sense for this cocktail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We finally return to the matter at hand.\u00a0 What would happen if we engineer a hybrid of a classic martini with a pedestrian, tasty but still pedestrian, gin \u2018n\u2019 tonic?\u00a0 I devised an experimental recipe: 2 jiggers of Rangpur Gin, 1 jigger of tonic put into a mixing tin with plenty of ice.\u00a0 Shake vigorously with a solemnity\u00a0of purpose. \u00a0Strain into a pre-frozen up glass.\u00a0 Finish with a squeeze of fresh lime, rim the glass with the lime, plop lime into the glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I saw things, there were three possible&nbsp;outcomes for this brave new departure&nbsp;<em>where no man has gone before.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One, fail. It ruined a gin \u2018n\u2019 tonic,&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;it ruined a martini.<br \/>Two, Winner winner, chicken dinner.&nbsp; Unqualified success<br \/>Three,&nbsp;<em>Interesting<\/em>.&nbsp; &nbsp;Sorta like hearing your blind date has a good personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OK.&nbsp; I think I may give this another shot later in the warm weather season, when I might be drinking a gin \u2018n&#8217; tonic anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, before I leave.&nbsp; I went on a blind date once, and the friend who made the intro never once mentioned Sandy\u2019s personality.&nbsp; Although she did say she was from Brooklyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The fixin\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" src=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-111453\" srcset=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-2.png 480w, http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-2-225x300.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My sacred mixing \u201ctin\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" src=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-111454\" srcset=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-3.png 480w, http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-3-225x300.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br \/><strong>Richard Parker, my man frog, serves up the finished product<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" src=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-111455\" srcset=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-4.png 480w, http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-4-225x300.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>for a more detailed treatise on my Martini experience&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110700\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110700<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you kidding?&nbsp; A Gin \u2018n\u2019Tonic Martini? To explore new worlds,To seek out new life and civilizations,To go where no man has gone before. First, I am not on a five year mission.&nbsp; I was just looking to finish off &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=111451\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111457,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111451\/revisions\/111457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}